Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

33

The Quest

"Living the dream of the Upanishads ..."

"I left British India in order to pursue my practice of Yoga undisturbed," Sri Aurobindo stated in his 21 July 1911 letter to The Hindu. It was indeed a statement of fact, like the fact that the sun rises in the east. The British bureaucrats could be as sceptical as you like! After all the bureaucracy, British or otherwise, is notorious for its stationary ideas and fixed ways. Quite unlike the character who frequently said, "My ideas changed, so I changed my ways!" as portrayed by our Bengali poet D. L. Roy.

In point of fact, all those who had known Sri Aurobindo during the intense political period of his life, and even those who had but met him in passing (Nevinson, for instance), were aware of the Yogi in him.

Sri Aurobindo also mentioned that he was practising yoga for the last six years, which should take us to 1905. He was evidently thinking of 'conscious yoga.' Because let us recollect that with his first step on Indian soil he had begun to get experiences. Earlier still, from his Darjeeling days. Let us recapitulate some of the main experiences.¹

¹ Described in Mother's Chronicles, Books Four and Five.

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-In Darjeeling: "I saw suddenly a great darkness rushing into me and enveloping me and the whole universe."

-In London. The vision of the Deity of Britain's destiny welcoming him, then the Sannyasin who gave him the mantra of Indian culture. So he skipped the riding test of I.C.S.

-"Avast calm descended upon him at the moment when he stepped first on Indian soil ... in fact with his first step on the Apollo Bunder in Bombay" (6 February 1893).

-The experience of the 'Godhead' when he "sat behind the dance of Danger's hooves" at Baroda.

-The sense of the Infinite, 'Adwaita,' which he experienced at the Shankaracharya Hill at Kashmir, or

-the invasion of the Infinite he felt when he stood atop the Parvati hill near Pune.

-Standing before a temple of goddess Kali at Karnali, looking at the sculpture, unexpectedly, mysteriously he saw "a Face that looks into yours."

-Sri Aurobindo began his practice of pranayama in 1903, if we recall aright. This practice opened up some remarkable faculties in him:

a)he felt a sort of electricity all around him;

b)a rapid flow of poetry;

c)his "mind began to work with great illumination and power" as did his memory.

But pranayama did not "carry me far."

It was in January 1908 that Sri Aurobindo met Lele, the Tantric Yogi. Results:

a) "My mind became full of an eternal silence—it is still there."

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b) "In seven days I got the Nirvanic experience ..." otherwise called the silent Brahman Consciousness.

It was, said Sri Aurobindo, his "first positive spiritual experience and it made possible all the rest of the sadhana." That his sadhana was progressing at a pace can be deduced from his letters to his wife, Mrinalini Devi.

- The experience of the Cosmic Consciousness, or the Vasudeva experience in the Alipore jail.

Now, any one of these experiences would have been fulfilment enough for any individual. It is common knowledge in India that some of these experiences come at the end of a lifelong sadhana. Attaining the Brahman Consciousness is said to take many lives of intense sadhana. But, "Nirvana in my liberated consciousness turned out to be ... a first step towards the complete thing, not the sole true attainment possible or even a culminating finale." Normally, the ultimate aim of most Yogis is the attainment of the Cosmic Consciousness, where all beings, all objects are perceived as the Divine. This is a cherished realization.

Now, if 'Arabindo Babu' had these personal realizations while in Bengal, what need had he to go to such a far-off place as Pondicherry?

But we have seen enough of 'Arabindo Babu' to know that he was never driven by personal ambition nor did he ever care for personal achievement. When he began his political career it was India he looked at. India the Mother. He saw how the colonial government was sucking the blood of the Mother. His legitimate revolt against the entrenched British Government was to free his country from foreign domination.

So too now. When he achieved those spiritual realizations

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he looked at the Earth. Why does she have to perpetually remain in such dark ignorance when so many luminous Beings had brought illuminating Lights? Why this constant suffering when she was supposed to have been created for Joy? Some of the predecessors had given hints and a few had pointed out the causes of her illness and had prescribed some palliatives. But no one, so far as we know, had ever tried to cure her once and for all. Where was the panacea that could cure the Universe? Restore to the Earth her lost health? Give her back her youth? Eternal youth full of the joy of life? In a word, what is

'Arabindo Babu' became 'Sri Aurobindo.'

Thus began his Quest.

He repeatedly said that the Yoga he was doing was not for himself. No, he had no need for a personal salvation: "My Sadhana was not done for myself but for the earth-consciousness."

It was an unimaginable task that he had undertaken. Eyeing the present Man he had doubts as to whether Man could really be Nature's last word. He went searching for the secret of the birth of a new humanity. He had to find that secret, find his way to the Secret, and prepare the earth-consciousness for the Age that seeks to come.

Did Sri Aurobindo succeed in the stupendous task?

That his search was crowned with success is amply clear from his writings, and from Mother's conversations with Satprem. Sri Aurobindo and Mother together have given us humans the secret key. It is up to us to pick up the key and unlock the door of the great Mystery.

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They, of course, like other Yogis first explored the upper worlds. But instead of simply climbing the ladder to the ethereal worlds like the Yogis of yore, who neglected the body to finally vanish into the worlds beyond, Mother and Sri Aurobindo "plunged through the body's alleys blind to the nether mysteries." They were shown that the body's substance is sacred. The body is the Earth.

Thus far we know.

But what I did not know was what heroic deeds Sri Aurobindo had to perform before he saw "the source whence" the Earth's "agonies part and the inner reason of hell." How many dragons and goblins he had to vanquish I did not know, nor how many giants and ogres he encountered. The valorous deeds of the Knights of the Round Table pale into insignificance before Sri Aurobindo's heroic deeds. What adventures did he have on the way? How did he go about finding the Secret? What routes did he take to reach his destination ? Frankly, I was intrigued. "How?" was my question.

But Sri Aurobindo once said, "I have not written the history of my sadhana____" So how do we find out?

Now, I have always loved, still love, reading mystery stories, as my friends will tell you. I have gulped down Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poi rot, Perry Mason, and admired their cleverness in finding solutions from stray clues; Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Tintin (in French) have delighted me; I have hugely enjoyed Byomkesh and Feluda (in Bengali), and oh, so many more! This being so, you will readily understand that I also wanted to see if the Mystery that was puzzling me could be unravelled.

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Surely, I thought, there are many hints lying scattered among Sri Aurobindo's writings and his letters? Clues are certain to be found strewn across his poems, which are not mere flights of fancy but expressions of solid experiences?

When the question is genuine, the answer is provided.

*

* *

First of all, however, I would like to proffer an apology.

Decades ago, when my nephews—now grandfathers— were schoolchildren in the Ashram, studying in Cinquieme (today's class 7,1 think), they had a teacher for arithmetic who was a brilliant mathematician, Nolini Sen. In the Calcutta University Nolini Sen's classmates were Meghnad Saha and Satyen Bose.¹ Well, the problem was precisely his brilliance. He would start on a problem and immediately ask, "you have understood?" ("tu as compris ?" or "vous avez compris ?") and the next instant he would jump to the solution. He never thought it necessary to go step by step and explain the steps. With the result that the children never learned the process of solving a mathematical problem. They were bored, and the teacher they got the next year made them lose another year. Yet those students were by no means dullards. Because, when they came up to Troisieme (class 9?) they showed a quick grasp of the subject. Their new

¹ Nolini Sen (1894-1962).

Meghnad Saha (6.10.1893 - 16.2.1956), a physicist.

Satyendra Nath Bose (1.1.1894 - 4.2.1974) is well known for his Bose-Einstein statistics. He was also vice-chancellor of Tagore's Visvabharati at Santiniketan for two years.

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teacher was my brother Abhay. He was what you would call a normal bright boy, but by no means anywhere near the brilliance of N. Sen. Yet was he able to impart more effectively an understanding of the process to the students and awaken in them a liking for the subject. My! how he worked hard, and how he made those students work hard! He told them, "Look, with your present knowledge I can't make you pass to the next class. You'll have to stay in the same class." Dismayed, the students promised to work hard and make up for the missed years. So all of them toiled. In fact, the work habit they then acquired stood them in good stead in their adult life. And they still retain a sense of gratitude towards their teacher Abhay.

It often turns out that a lesser mortal is more helpful than a brilliant one. And the anecdote is my apology for my audacity at inviting you to join me in the exploration of some of the alleyways and byways Sri Aurobindo crossed, or did not cross, before he reached the Highway.

Mind you, this is going to be a first tour for me too. I intend to share with you whatever clues I discover.

The explanation behind us, let us set off on our expedition.

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